(SAN FRANCISCO, CA – 07/10/12)  Today, the Coalition for Safe San Francisco, along with dozens of other community organizations, civil rights groups and professional bar associations, sent a letter to Mayor Edwin Lee, expressing alarm and opposition to his statements in support of implementing a “stop-and-frisk” policy in San Francisco. On June 27, Mayor Lee told the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board that he is considering implementing a “stop-and-frisk” policy to address gun violence in San Francisco.

Mayor Lee indicated that he had discussed the idea with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Aliya Karmali, of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, stated, “The National Lawyers Guild and others were extremely surprised that Mayor Lee was looking to New York City’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ as a model practice for San Francisco, when the New York City program has been thoroughly discredited and criticized as discriminatory.” Karmali also noted that “less than a month ago, on June 17, thousands of New Yorkers marched in the street to protest this precise policy.”

Nasrina Bargzie, Staff Attorney at the Asian Law Caucus stated, “The Asian Law Caucus is alarmed by and adamantly opposed to policies that in effect permit for racial profiling. We call on Mayor Lee to immediately retract his statements concerning possible implementation of this policy in San Francisco.”

The Coalition’s letter asserts that the proposed policy is ineffective and damaging to communities already plagued by high rates of police misconduct and incarceration.

Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area stated, “NYPD’s own data on its ‘stop-and-frisk’ policy reveals that it has resulted in minimum weapons and/or contraband yield but has targeted communities of color at disproportionate and alarming rates.” Biloo added that “in 2011, an analysis of the data shows that a record 685,724 people were stopped. Blacks and Latinos made up 84% of all those stopped, although they make up respectively 23% and 29% of New York City’s total population. Of African American males between the ages of 14 to 24, the number of stops last year was greater than their total population.”

The Coalition of groups joins a growing chorus of opposition to the prospect of implementing a “stop-and-frisk” policy in San Francisco that includes SFPD Police Chief Greg Suhr and SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
The letter calls upon Mayor Lee to make an immediate public statement to assure San Franciscans that he is no longer considering the adoption of a “stop-and-frisk” policy in San Francisco and that any steps he takes to address gun violence will be implemented in a way that does not rely on racial or other forms of profiling.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

Signatories to the letter include the following organizations: Afghan-American Bar Association, African Advocacy Network (AAN), AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, American Muslim Voice, American Muslims for Palestine, Arab Cultural and Community Center, Arab Film Festival, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, Asian Law Alliance, Asian Law Caucus, Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers, Bay Area Somali Community, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, CAIR San Francisco Bay Area, CARECEN, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Coalition for a Safe Berkeley, CODEPINK Women for Peace, Community United Against Violence, Defending Dissent Foundation, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Equal Justice Society, Instituto Familiar de la Raza, Inc, Justice for Palestinians, La Raza Centro Legal, Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Minami Tamaki LLP, MUJERES UNIDAS Y ACTIVAS, Muslim Advocates, North American South Asian Bar Association, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Council of Arab Americans, National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Northern California Islamic Council, Omid Advocates for Human Rights, POWER, Rev. Shad Riddick, Pastor: Metropolitan Baptist Church, Individual, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association,

San Francisco State University Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 87,Services Immigrants Rights and Education Network (SIREN), SF Pride at Work/ HAVOQ, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), Sikh Coalition, South Asian Americans Leading Together, South Asian Bar Association of Northern California (SABA-NC) , South Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia, Transgender Law Center, United Muslims of America, USPCN – Northern California and W. Haywood Burns Institute.

Mayor Lee spoke in support of the Ordinance, alongside community member Mokhtar Alkhanshali, Asian Law Caucus Executive Director Hyeon-Ju Rho, Arab Cultural & Community Center President Fuad Ateyeh, and Asian Law Caucus and Coalition Coordinator Summer Hararah, and in the presence of over fifty community members.
SEE: Local ABC 7 News Video Coverage

The Ordinance requires:

1. adherence to San Francisco and California local standards when the SFPD works with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)
2. that before any new agreements are entered into between the SFPD and the FBI regarding the JTTF work, that those agreements must be subject to public review and comment before the Police Commission, and
3. yearly reports to the Police Commission of the SFPD’s work with the FBI JTTF.

“The Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities have experienced extreme discrimination in the aftermath of September 11,” said Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a community member and founding member of the Coalition. “This Ordinance is a step toward protecting our community from racial and religious profiling, and requiring transparency and oversight.”  San Francisco follows Portland as the second city in the US to address its relationship with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to ensure that state and local standards are protected.

“In the coming months the Coalition will be working with the community, supporting organizations, and various officials to ensure proper implementation of the Ordinance” said Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, and a founding member of the Coalition.

Community members and allies are invited to a celebration of the Coalition’s work to be held on May 22, 6:30pm at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics in San Francisco. For additional information and to RSVP, please visit: Community Celebration.

The current agreement with the FBI was signed secretly in 2007 without public, Board, or Police Commission knowledge.  At present, DGOs and San Francisco values regarding transparency, accountability, and civil rights compliance are not mandated, but may be followed simply at the will of the Officers participating in the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

This has been of great concern to City residents who are requesting through this Ordinance that these laws and values be immediately codified so that the City is certain to protect against further harassment and profiling.  In particular those from marginalized and targeted communities such as the Arab, Muslim, South Asian, Queer, African American, Chinese, and other immigrant communities are concerned.

An Arab community member who was profiled by SFPD and asked to be kept unnamed for fear of further harassment against him and his family spoke out saying “I am in constant fear for my privacy and security.  It is our hope that this ordinance will protect all of us.”

Though the Ordinance passed today on first vote, with six Supervisors speaking out strongly in support of the Ordinance, community members were disappointed by the lack of support from the other Supervisors, particularly Wiener, Cohen, and Chu who represent communities that are often victims of FBI or law enforcement harassment.

Supervisor Wiener dissented with the Ordinance, stating “I am 100% supportive of having those local standards that reflect San Francisco values… the question for me is whether this needs to be legislated… and I don’t think it does.” Although this Ordinance would merely codify the local standards Supervisor Wiener supports, Wiener exercised his “no” vote in front of dozens of disappointed community members showing that for him their concerns do not warrant this legislation. Despite hours of prior community testimony where members of LGBTQ, African American, and Japanese communities also supported this Ordinance, Supervisor Wiener dismissed comparisons between law enforcement profiling of LGBTQ and Japanese communities and the current actions of the FBI against Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities.  Other Supervisors voting “no” declined to comment publicly during the vote.

Board President David Chiu disagreed with Wiener’s sentiments and defended the Ordinance, “It wasn’t too long ago that Chinese Americans were detained and interrogated… it wasn’t very long ago that African Americans had their phones tapped, and that LGBTQ individuals in San Francisco were dragged from bars and harassed. Every meeting we start with the Pledge of Allegiance… we have to do our part to make sure we stand for a city with ‘liberty and justice for all.”

Supervisor Jane Kim thanked the community members and organizations that brought this forward, and responded to the lone concerns voiced by Supervisor Wiener, stating “This ordinance does not make our City less safe, in fact I would argue that it makes our city more safe by codifying the civil rights protections we already hold sacred in San Francisco… If we really believe in these values then they deserve to be codified into law.”

Community members and representatives of the over 70 endorsing organizations see today’s vote as a step in the right direction.  “Today is a victory in the initial passage of a law that would help to protect all communities from racial profiling.  Now we call on the rest of the Supervisors and the Mayor to stand on the side of justice – support this Ordinance and take a proactive stand for civil rights,” said Nour Chammas of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.